Reliving Prince Albert’s year in sports: Top sports stories of 2025

In August, the Preds made the long trek to Abbotsford, B.C., for this year’s MacDonald Cup tournament and were the only team from Saskatchewan competing, as all seven other teams hailed from within the borders of British Columbia.

Regardless, the Predators did what the Predators do best, and that’s win.

They went undefeated en route to capturing the Championship, going a perfect 5-0 while outscoring their opponents 81-41. In the gold medal game, P.A. downed the North Shore Indians 10-8 in overtime on the heels of Ryley Prediger’s two-goal and four-assist performance.

Individually, Brayden Rieger was named the tournament’s Top Offensive Player with 24 points (14g-10a) and was also named a 2nd Team All-Star, along with Cole Barmby.

Provincially, the Preds captured their third straight Prairie Gold Lacrosse League (PGLL) championship, cementing their legacy as a dynasty in Saskatchewan lacrosse. P.A. went 11-0-1 (W-L-T) in the regular season and topped it off with a two-game sweep of Moose Jaw in the Finals.

After it was all said and done, the Predators overall record for the year was 18-0-1.

Following their Western win, the team’s undefeated streak was extended to 820 days, as Prince Albert hasn’t lost a game since May 13, 2023.

Your 2025 Western Champions, Prince Albert Predators. (Tolson Media/MacDonald Cup)

Grassick guides Huskies to new heights

It was a season for the record books for Prince Albert’s Gage Grassick.

The Carlton alum’s trophy grew exponentially in 2025, winning numerous awards and honours, all while guiding her University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s basketball team to their third National Championship in program history. At the beginning of the season against Manitoba, she became the first Saskatchewan-born woman in U Sports history to record a triple-double. In another game against Calgary, she broke the UPSORTS Final 8 record for most steals in a game with nine.

This past year, on top of her National Championship, she was:

• named the Lois and Doug Mitchell Athlete of the Year (U Sports Player of the Year), the first woman athlete from the University of Saskatchewan to win the award

• awarded Nan Copp Trophy as the U Sports Women’s Basketball Player of the Season, the third Huskie in program history to win the award

•named Canada West Player of the Year

• named U Sports Final 8 Tournament MVP

• named U Sports First Team All-Canadian

• awarded Mary Ethel Cartwright Trophy as Most Outstanding Female Athlete at the University of Saskatchewan

• named U Sports Final 8 Tournament All-Star

Internationally, Grassick also claimed a gold medal as a member of Team Canada at the Junior Pan American Games in the 3×3 basketball event. There, Canada beat Mexico 18-13 in the finals, winning the country’s first-ever gold medal in the event.

Prince Albert’s Gage Grassick carries the Canada West Championship after leading the U of S Huskies to their 10th conference title in a 71-59 win over UBC in Vancouver on Mar. 11, 2025. (Jacob Mallari/UBC Thunderbirds)

Diehl makes first World Championship appearance

A Prince Albert swimmer made her biggest splash yet in her young career this year.

Ali Diehl’s swimming skills took her across the pond to Singapore in September, where she was one of 19 Canadians representing the country at the World Para Swimming Championships.

The 17-year-old, then 16-year-old, competed in two events at the competition in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke SB9 and the Mixed 100m Medley Relay 34PTS. The SB9 represents a classification for athletes with minimal physical impairments, while 34PTS is an acronym for “34 Point Relay”, where the combined classification points of the four swimmers in a team cannot exceed 34.

In the 100m Breaststroke SB9, Diehl was one of seven swimmers in the race, where she ranked fifth based on her qualifying time. In the race itself, she finished fourth with a time of 1:21.05, less than one second behind Russian Paralympic swimmer and 2020 Paralympic silver medalist Elizaveta Sidorenko for World Championship bronze.

In the Mixed 100m Medley Relay 34PTS, Diehl and #7 Canada were thought to be out of the Finals picture, but managed to secure the sixth and final spot in the medal race after a bit of luck when #3 China, #5 France, and #10 Poland were disqualified in the semis. There, in the Finals, the Canadians placed fifth with a final time of 4:50.00 on the dot. #2 Spain secured the gold at the event with a Championship Record time of 4:31.50, less than 0.2 seconds ahead of #9 Great Britain.

Back in April, she brought home quite a bit of hardware from the 2025 World Para Swimming Championship Series event in Indianapolis, capturing four medals including a gold (100m Breaststroke), silver (200m Individual Medley), and two bronze (Breaststroke Women’s Open, 50m Freestyle). She also took third overall at the event, which featured athletes from 23 different countries.

Prince Albert’s Ali Diehl at the Canadian Swimming Trials in June 2025. (Scott Grant via Swim Sask/Facebook)

Kingsmen capture city’s first provincial title in cricket

Prince Albert left their mark on the provincial cricket scene in 2025.

Back in September, The Kingsmen brought home the city’s first provincial title in cricket after winning the Saskatoon Cricket League ODP Div 1.

P.A.’s longest-standing cricket club, also known as the Emperors, managed to take down a fellow Prince Albert team in the Phantoms, winning the championship by seven wickets. It was the first time a team from the city has won a title playing in ODP, a style of cricket that consists of 40 overs and can take up to eight hours to play from start to finish.

Needing a lot of endurance and strength to pull out the win, Kingsmen captain Gaurav Kumar said the win was “a great achievement.”

“Everybody pitched in and everybody focused on what they could control and [the] end result was we were the champions.”

The Man of the Match for The Kingsmen was Grove Venter, who drove in 63 runs alone on 74 balls.

The Kingsmen pose for a photo after defeating the Prince Albert Phantoms in the Saskatoon Cricket League ODP Div 1 finals at Red Wing School on Sept. 13, 2025. (Emperors Cricket Club/Facebook)

Debden Roadrunners make it four-in-a-row

The Debden Roadrunners managed to keep their dynasty alive this past year.

The juvenile women’s broomball team made history back in March when they won their fourth consecutive National Championship in Val-d’Or, Que.

Throughout the season, the Roadrunners played 31 games and never lost a single one, albeit with a few ties. Regardless, the team went on to the national tournament as the three-time defending champions and didn’t even flinch, winning all six of their games without allowing a single goal to capture their fourth straight National title.

Head Coach Dean Demers said the team has a legitimate claim as one of the best teams of all time.

“In the world of sports, when one team wins their league or their national title four times in a row? Well, that team gets put into the conversation of greatest team of all time. That’s exactly how these girls should be known as.”

The Debden Roadrunners celebrate winning their fourth straight national broomball championship at the end of March in Val-d’Or, Quebec. (Photo submitted/Dean Demers)

Prairie Dogs win second Harvest Cup

The Prince Albert Prairie Dogs made history in the Sask. Field Lacrosse League (SFLL) this year.

In October, the Prairie Dogs became the first team to win two Harvest Cups during the league’s championship weekend in Sturgis, going undefeated en route to defeating the hosts 5-3 in the finals to win gold.

This year’s Harvest Cup is the first for P.A. since they won the inaugural title in 2021.

Head coach Matt Robin said that the depth of experience on the bench was the ticket to their success.

“We had a few younger guys that weren’t able to participate in the fall field season because there just wasn’t enough numbers in the province, so we were able to get them to play with us, and they really helped us on the backside, on the defensive end.”

“It’s very beneficial having those young legs being able to run because it is a full football field, so it’s tiring on us older guys, but the young guys really stepped up. Our bench wasn’t as big as we had hoped it would be since the beginning of the season, but we were able to make it work with the bodies we had.”

Next season, the Prairie Dogs will be hosting the 2026 SFLL Harvest Cup playoffs at Prime Ministers Park during the first weekend of October.

The Prince Albert Prairie Dogs celebrate their second Harvest Cup with a team photo on Oct. 5, 2025. (Horace Ratt via Prairie Dogs LC/Facebook)

Isbister named PJHL MVP, first in Timberjaks history

The Prince Albert Timberjaks continued to turn heads in 2025.

Despite ending the season at the bottom of the Bob Dybvig (North) Division standings, two Timberjaks players stood above the rest of the league. At the end of January, before the 2024-25 playoffs got underway, the Prairie Junior Hockey League (PJHL) named assistant captain Keethan Isbister the Most Valuable Player and awarded Brody Anderson the Graham Christie Memorial Rookie of the Year.

Isbister finished the regular season as the league leader in points with 77 (37g-40a) and as the leader in power play points with 26 (12g-14a). Following his historic season, the now 20-year-old Prince Albert product is currently playing for the Jr. A Creston Valley Thunder Cats in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL), where he sits second in team scoring with 43 points (16g-27a) in 26 games so far.

Meanwhile, Anderson finished the 2024-25 season as the third-highest scoring rookie in the league, netting 43 points (22g-21a) in 39 games. The Shellbrook native was also a Bob Dybvig All-Star last season and had seven games where he scored three or more points. This season, the 18-year-old currently leads the team in the scoring department with 22 points (11g-11a).

Prince Albert Timberjaks forward Keethan Isbister (#92) was named the PJHL’s Most Valuable Player for the 2024-25 season back in January, alongside Brody Anderson who was named the Graham Christie Memorial Rookie of the Year. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

by Logan Lehmann